So, you get to vote once every 3 hours until midnight Central Daylight time on September 15, 2015. The winner(s) of the contest will receive an e-version of The Darby Shaw Chronicles box set (or they can designate a recipient if they already own it) and they will receive a copy of Darby’s next book, autographed, once it’s released. They will also be acknowledged in the back of the book.

If you’ve been reading my series, The Darby Shaw Chronicles, you may have noticed something missing in the first three books.

One of my characters doesn’t have a name!

Uh-oh, how’d I do that?

Well, truth be told, it was intentional. Because I wanted YOU to give him a name!

If you haven’t been reading, or if it’s been a while, you may not know to whom I’m referring. Well, it’s Mark and Darby’s boss, the Captain.

It’s more than time to give him a name, wouldn’t you say?

Here’s a brief description and history:

Edward James Olmos (from IMDB.com)

The captain is an older man, in his late 60s or early 70s, and worked closely with Mark’s father. He still pays calls on Mark Sr’s widow, and Mark (junior) grew up knowing the man who would become his boss. The captain has known Mark’s family since well before Mark was born!

He’s mostly greyed and typically wears a mustache. He can be kind when necessary, but is still tough as nails.

He was also one of the last people to be with Major Mark Herman Sr when he died.

So there’s some history here. And I don’t have his precise ancestry selected, either.

What I need from you is a first and last name. If you have a fitting middle name, throw it in there as well, but he doesn’t have to have one. (If it ever becomes necessary, I’ll pick one that sounds good to my ear.)

Out of the entries, I’ll pick my top three or five favorites (depending on how many entries I get!) At that point, we’ll hold a contest to pick the winning entry here on the blog.

What are you going to get for participating?

If you win the second round of the competition, you’ll get an e-copy of the Darby Shaw Chronicles box set immediately in whatever format you prefer. When the next book in the series is released, you’ll be acknowledged in the back of the book, and you’ll also receive a signed copy of the book. So how does that sound?

Put your thinking caps on. I’ll leave this open until August 31, and will post my top three or five names in the first week of September. Everyone is welcome to leave as many suggestions as they wish!